Paradise: Every Journey

In a world where mankind has finally brought about its own destruction, a war to end all wars has reduced the planet to a barren wasteland. The earth is smothered in pockets of radiation from the weapons of mass destruction that countries turned upon one another, the flame of humankind flickered and dimmed, but was not quite extinguished. Mankind managed to shelter itself from the atomic fires and clawed its way back to the new world where it must now reap the consequences of its destructive nature.
The post-war Wasteland is overflowing with radiation, twisted mutants and gangs of bandits that scuttle through the dust in search of people to rob, torture and kill. Pirates, kidnapping innocent lives to sell as slaves and a corrupt military force that, despite its noble intentions, now spreads more harm than peace, using its superior firepower to bully entire towns into serving them. This is the new world - the world in which I was born. Since I took my first breath, I have been living in a world where the weak and innocent are exploited by the evil of the Wasteland. This is the story of my journeys, of the people I’ve met and the friends I have made. This is the story of how we work against the odds to build a better world. This is the story of how we try to make a utopia from hell. This is the story of the construction of paradise.View table of contents...

Chapters:

We burst through the door and stumbled into a gloomy alleyway
behind the building just in time to see Andy scrambling over a
fence and dropping down into the street beyond. "Hurry up!"
Shrinker shouted as he led the way forward. He reached the fence
and clambered over it, and I was hot on his heels.

I leapt up and wrapped my fingers around the wire-mesh fence, the
metal digging into my fingers as I pulled up my weight and threw
my legs over it, dropping down and landing heavily on the broken
concrete. I overbalanced and fell backwards, crashing to the
floor as I saw Shrinker chasing Rusher down the street. I dragged
myself back onto my feet, groaning in self-annoyance as I
sprinted after them, desperate to catch up.

I reached Shrinker just as Andy suddenly turned off the road and
legged-it down another alleyway. I nearly overshot the turn, but
Shrinker grabbed me by my jacket and pulled me in behind him.
Andy passed some old oil drums serving as bins set against the
wall of a building and grabbed them as he ran, tossing them
behind him in attempt to slow us down. They crashed noisily
against the floor and bounced towards us, but we just leapt over
them and continued the chase. Andy reached the entrance to
another alley that crossed paths with this one and tore down it,
breathing heavily as he kicked up dust with every step. We were
close behind, we turned to follow him and I forced my legs to run
harder. I was getting closer with every passing second, I saw
Andy turn round, his pale, frightened features barely visible
through the shadows.

There was an old ladder leaning against the wall of the alley, he
pulled it over in passing, sending it toppling to form a low
barrier that stretched the length of the path. I tried to jump
it, but I had been too close behind him and my foot caught in one
of the rungs, the ladder was dragged a few inches before it
caught and I was sent tumbling to the floor. I skidded painfully
across the dirt, the air knocked from my lungs. I looked up as I
saw Andy glance back and smile, satisfied. I punched at the
ground with my fist, expecting a sarcastic comment form Shrink,
but none came. I looked around me and realised he was gone. Where
was he?

I turned to follow Andy, he had just reached the end of the alley
and stepped out onto the street when the familiar figure of
Shrink appeared from nowhere, flying through the air as he
tackled Andy to the ground with a satisfying thump. Despite the
pain in my hands and knees where I fell, I laughed. I kicked my
foot free of the ladder and jogged the rest of the way.

I turned onto the street to see Shrinker standing over Andy,
pointing the same bulky-looking pistol at him that he had aimed
at Fictus when he took me hostage.

"Take these." He said, tossing me a pair of old handcuffs. "Are
you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, "He tripped me up with a ladder, but I
just got a little graze on my chin." I touched the sore spot that
I had noticed earlier, my finger coming away with a tiny speckle
of blood. Shrinker nodded with a smile.

"Fuck you." Andy grumbled, receiving a kick to the side from
Shrinker as a result.

"Now!" Shrinker ordered. Andy coughed painfully and complied.
"Longshot," he smiled, "Would you be so kind as to give him a
search and cuff his hands behind his back?" I nodded and stepped
over him, gingerly patting his clothes in what I assumed was a
half-decent search. My hand met something solid against his hip,
I reached under his leather jacket and pulled out a pistol that
had been stuffed in the waistband of his jeans. I handed it to
Shrinker, who stuffed it into one of his seemingly bottomless
pockets as I clicked the handcuffs into place around Andy's
wrists.

Shrinker slid his pistol back into the shoulder holster that had
been hidden behind his jacket and reached down, dragging Andy to
his feet and grabbing him by the collar.

"Andy Fola," he said in a flat voice, "I am placing you under
arrest for the murder of Cindy Morrow, and for making my friend
here graze his chin."

"What?" Andy demanded.

"You have the right to shut up. Actually, not a right - more of
an obligation. In fact, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and
say it's more of a command. Shut up Andy. Apart from that, you
don't really have any rights. Consider yourself all left."

"Are you actually allowed to arrest people?" I asked. "I thought
that was more of a guard thing."

"Actually, I have no legal standing whatsoever." He admitted,
"But I was trying to not let him know that."

"Oh... Sorry."

"You're not a guard?" Andy demanded.

"Andy!" Shrinker cut in before he could continue, "I can't help
but notice you're not exercising your
'not-so-much-a-right-so-much-as-an-obligation-well-more-like-an-command'
to shut up!"

"But you-"

"Gahh!" Shrinker interrupted.

"Yeah, real matu-"

"Wah!"

"Are you seri-"

"Bahh!" he pointed a stern finger in Andy's face, challenging
him. But this time he stayed quiet. "Good boy! Shall we crack on
to the Guard station? Let's go Longshot." He held Andy firmly by
his arm and lead the way forward.

***

"One thing I don't understand." I complained to Shrinker, "Why
did you shout 'contact left' in the opium den?"

"To tell which one of the people was our friend here." He said,
nodding towards our captive. We were still walking, the
adrenaline from the chase was starting to ebb and the cold of the
morning was beginning to seep through my clothes and into my
bones.

"But I thought you had already spoken to him? You questioned him
at his house. And more importantly, why the hell would shouting
'contact left' show you what he looked like?"

"He's is ex-NWA," He started.

"You guys are talking about me like I'm not even here!" Andy cut
in.

"Remember the whole 'shut up' thing Andy?" We were quiet for a
few seconds while Andy resumed his silence, "Good. As I was
saying, he's ex-NWA. He served for several years and saw a
lot of contacts. Now when you're out on patrol or
whatever and you come under enemy fire, you shout 'contact' to
indicate to the others that you are being shot at, and then state
which direction the enemy is. Back in the opium den, almost all
of the patrons were facing a direction that put us on their
right. So, when i shouted 'contact left', almost all of them
looked at me because they were surprised by the noise.

Andy however looked away from us, to the left, because he has
been condition that when someone shouts that, it means that there
are people trying to kill them from his left. If you're out in
the Wasteland and you shout that people are shooting, you look at
them and not the person that shouted to you. He looked left just
a split second before he remembered that there wouldn't be an
enemy, then he looked at the source of the noise."

"Well that makes a kind of sense. But why didn't you
remember what he looked like anyway? You know, after you spoke to
him?"

"I spoke to a dozen people that day, not to mention guards and
officials and complete strangers. I didn't have any reason to
suspect him originally so why would he make a lasting impression?
Certainly not for his sparkling personality and rugged good
looks." Andy cast him an angry glance, but didn't say anything.
"Now, you should get back to the hospital. I'll be taking Andy to
the guard station, a lot of paperwork and boring conversations,
nothing of any interest."

I continued walking with him for a few more blocks, then he gave
me simple directions to the hospital and fifteen minutes later I
was walking through the entrance. Everyone turned to see who had
arrived, Wraith, Gaz, F-Kay and Charlie offered me friendly
smiles that I returned with a nod.

"Hi." I greeted, "Any news?" Wraith shook his head. It was then
that I noticed someone was missing. "Where's Curtis?"

"He had to leave to get home." F-Kay answered as Wraith and Gaz
resumed the conversation they had been having before I arrived,
"He just left fifteen minutes ago to get ready."

"Get ready for what?" I asked. Charlie was about to answer, but
Wraith spoke first.

"Where's Shrinker?"

"He's taking Andy to the guard station or something."

"What happened to your chin?" Gaz pointed at the small cut on my
face.

"Oh," I touched the sore spot on my face that I had forgotten
about, "He threw a ladder at me."

"Shrinker threw a ladder at you?" Wraith looked at me sideways.

"No, Andy threw the ladder. Shrinker tackled Andy."

"Is this how you two make friends?" F-Kay asked, "Throwing
ladders and tacking each other?"

"No, it... I..." I sighed and sat down as I began to tell them
what Shrinker and I had been up to in the past couple of hours.

***

"And then I made my way here." I finished speaking with a smile
on my face, looking back, it had been quite a strange series of
events, although I had left out the part about Madame Dupuske's
prediction.

"What kind of pistol did you say he had?" Gaz asked.

"I don't know." I admitted, "I didn't ask. But it was bulky and
unusual."

"It's a... Mauser C96 or something." F-Kay told us, "He's quite
proud of it. It's a really old gun, I've never seen them
anywhere else. He refused to tell me where he got it."

"I heard rumours that he got it pre-apocalypse, "Charlie
commented, "That he's actually over a hundred years old and
doesn't age. They said that he was an old soldier and was issued
it when he was in the army." Everyone was silent for a moment.

"Although Shrinker spent most of his time hunting down
deserters." Wraith clarified, "Soldiers that went AWOL.
Occasionally there would be a violent dispute between soldiers
and Shrinker would track them down. It was a hard job, none of
the other soldiers wanted anything to do with him, but Shrinker
didn't even seem to care."

"Why didn't the others like him?" I asked.

"Because the military police are the guys that give you into
trouble when you do something wrong." Gaz explained, "No one
likes the man that puts you and your friends in gaol." I nodded.

"How do you know all this?" I asked Wraith.

"Because I was in the NWA myself." My eyes widened in surprise,
and I was about to ask more questions when a man in a doctor's
coat appeared descending the stairs and walked over to us. We all
stood up to great him as Wraith stepped forward.

"Are you the group waiting on to gunshot victim upstairs?" The
doctor asked.

"Well, he's going to be fine." I released a breath that I hadn't
realized I was holding. "The bullet went straight through and
didn't hit anything that we couldn't fix. There shouldn't be any
permanent damage done, but we want to keep him in for a few days
to make sure."

"Thank you doctor." Wraith shook the man's hand, "Can we go up to
see him?"

"He's supposed to be sleeping." The doctor said warily.

"Oh, I see." Wraith looked disappointed, "Well, thank you for-"

"-He's supposed to be sleeping." The doctor interrupted,
a slight smile appearing on his lips, "Actually, he was supposed
to be sleeping since you brought him in, we gave him a sedative
as soon as he was upstairs, but somehow he's still awake and
asking to see you guys." We were all smiling now. "Go up whenever
you like, but keep it brief, I think you all need a bit of
sleep." The doctor clasped his hands behind his back and
sauntered off before anyone could add anything.

Wraith was the first to react, hustling forward towards the
stairs as the rest of us followed. A nurse was just leaving
Jackal's room as we ascended to the second storey and stepped
into the hallway. She recognised us and smiled warmly, leaving
the door open for us to barge inside. The room hadn't really
changed since I last saw it. They had transferred Jackal from the
metal table to a kind of foldable camp bed that lay with its head
against the wall. The floor had been wiped clean of blood and the
instruments they had used to help Jackal had been taken away.
Jackal himself was lying half naked, stretched out in the bed. He
smiled when he saw us, sitting himself up to reveal the clean
bandages that wound their way around his abdomen, a thin blanket
covering his lower half with the heart-shaped brand on his chest
standing out proudly like it was watching over his wound.

"Hey guys." He waved, a satisfied smirk on his face, "What's up?"

"Jackal!" Charlie cried, stepping forward before anyone could
respond and hugging the wounded Jackal much more delicately than
she had done with the rest of us. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm absolutely great. Never felt better in my life!" Jackal
answered, sarcasm dripping from his words as he hugged her back.

"Do you... Umm..." I wasn't sure what to say, I had never spoken
to someone in a hospital before.

"Do you want anything?" Gaz rescued my question.

"No, I'm good thanks." He grinned.

"So you don't want clothes?" Wraith asked, waving the bag we had
brought from the house in front of his face.

"What? Am I putting you to shame by being naked? Do you feel less
like a man?" Jackal jeered, taking the bag and making faces at
Wraith. He took out the loose fitting trousers and managed to
work his legs into them from under the blanket and gingerly
pulled on the green shirt we had brought to go with it, mindful
not to let it catch on the bandages.

"So where are the chocolates and the bunch of grapes?" Jackal
continued teasing us, making us all laugh awkwardly. "... Jeeze,
who died? You guys look uncomfortable."

"Oh yeah, how are all the people we found at the pirate camp?"
Jackal asked no one in particular.

"Including Fictus?" I asked.

"Oh, I had forgotten about him."

"They're fine." Wraith answered, "We took them to Eddie at the
Lucky Streak, he set them up with some accommodation and much
needed food, they should be coming to the hospital for a check up
tomorrow morning, after they've had a decent night sleep." He
hesitated before continuing, "Collin... Didn't make it." He
admitted. I hadn't been told that until now, but I had already
assumed. "The man that you jumped in front of wants to visit you
tomorrow to say thank you."

"Please don't let him." Jackal interrupted.

"I already told him that you don't like thankyous. Anyway, we
subdued Fictus and he's currently residing in the Guard Station
here."

"Well, we were waiting downstairs when Curtis made a passing
comment to Shrinker," I started, telling my story for the second
time that morning.

***

"I can't believed I missed it!" Jackal moaned after hearing about
what Shrinker and I had been up to, again I had left out Madame
Dupuske's prediction. "Was it as fun as it sounds?"

"It was... Something." I smiled.

"We should probably leave you to get some sleep." F-Kay
suggested, "God know I need some."

"But I'm not tired." Jackal whined in a shrill voice.

"Hello?" someone called from the hall outside. The door opened
and Shrinker's smiling face appeared. "I brought your book back!"
He held up his hand to reveal that he was holding a red hardback
book.

"Shrinker!" Jackal grinned, beckoning him over.

"I just got back from the guard station," He handed Jackal the
book and turned to me, "We got Andy to confess and he will be
convicted by tomorrow. Probably be sentenced to imprisonment for
a while."

"Where did you get this book?" Jackal asked, inspecting the
cover. "This isn't one of the ones you borrowed."

"I read all of them." Shrinker answered dismissively, "I borrowed
that one a couple of days ago."

"We weren't in Foxbridge a couple of days ago."

"But you said I could let myself in and borrow any more if I
needed them."

"No I didn't."

"Oh..." Shrinker looked up as he searched his memory, "Well that
explains why the doors were locked."

"Exactly! How did you open them?"

"I didn't use the door. Doors are for boring people with no
creativity. I mean, they're literally holes in the walls to get
through them, where's the fun in that?"

"So how did you get inside?" Jackal raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, who remembers? The important thing is that you have your
book back."

"Well... Thanks?" Jackal looked over the book again, "I suppose
it gives me something to do. Hey said they want me to stay here
for a few days."

"That's right." Wraith nodded, "Remind me to get them to move you
to a more comfortable bed in the morning. But for tonight, you
better get some sleep. We all should."

We said our goodbyes to Jackal before heading back downstairs and
letting ourselves out. We talked for a few more minutes in the
street before we broke up, Charlie, F-Kay and Shrinker heading to
their own homes while Gaz, Wraith and I headed to ours. Within
twenty minutes we were home, Wraith pored us a round of scotch
and we all headed to bed. As soon as I was under the blanket, it
was like all the day's activity finally caught up with me, the
energy drained out of me and within minutes I was sound asleep.

***

I was woken grudgingly by Wraith and Gaz who had clearly not been
awake for very long themselves. I was still tired, and a bit
bitter about being woken up. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes
and sat up, waiting expectantly for them to talk, but instead,
they presented me with an old radio.

"What's this?" I asked, my voice croaky from sleep.

"It's a radio." Gaz answered helpfully.

"Well I can see that. Why am I being woken up to show me a
radio?"

"It's nine o'clock." Wraith smiled, not helping my confusion.

"And..." I encouraged their explanation.

"Listen." Gaz smiled wryly and pressed the button, the radio
turned on and suddenly the room was full of music, a song played
on guitar that I didn't recognise.

"What's the relevance of-" Gaz silenced me by pressing a finger
to his lips and gesturing to the radio. The song ended and was
followed by a familiar voice.

"Good morning Foxbridge!"

"It's Curtis!" I exclaimed in surprise, Gaz continued pressing
his finger to his lips and nooded at the device now speaking with
Curtis' voice.

"This is DJ Yours Truly, live on 'Open Air Radio' bringing you
the best music in the Wasteland. To anyone that was out on the
town last night, you might have seen a bit of chaos when a couple
of men were seen carrying a wounded friend through the streets to
the Foxbrige Hospital early this morning. In fact, one unlucky
resident made the mistake of getting gin their way and was
apparently thrown to the ground when he tried to stop them. It
has since been found that the injured man was none other than one
Torry 'Jackal' Jackson who was shot last night after jumping in
front of a bullet meant for a recently freed slave just a mile
from our town. The shooter in question has been turned-over to
the guards who are now holding him for questioning.

It seems that Jackal is now in a stable condition after being
treated by the good doctors and nurses of the hospital, however
it seems that this 'Fictus' character was also responsible for
the death of a Mister Collin, last name unknown, who was another
survivor or pirate enslavement. I've spoken to the friend of
Jackal, and have been told that this all happened as a result of
their attack on a notorious pirate camp to the south. They told
me all about what happened, I even got the inside-scoop from none
other than the infamous F-Kay!"

Curtis spent the next several minutes detailing our attack on the
pirate camp and what had happened outside of Foxbridge. I hadn't
spent much time thinking about it, but hearing Curtis re-telling
the story of what we had been up to in the past few days made me
realise exactly why I was so tired.

"The recently rescued slaves are now receiving free accommodation
at the Lucky Streak hotel compliments of Mister Williams - the
owner. That's very kind of you Eddie, I'm sure they're very
grateful! Another shout-out to F-Kay for continuing the good
fight against the pirates, as well as Wraith, Gaz and Longshot
for their involvement. I think I speak for all the residents of
Foxbridge when I say that the Wasteland needs more men like you
guys. And of course, we all here at Open Air radio wish Jackal a
full and speedy recovery, and offer our condolences to the
friends and family of Mister Collin, who's funeral will take
place here in Foxbridge in the next few days.

In other news, Andy Fola was arrested late last night by
Foxbridge's famous crime-fighting detective - Shrinker, for the
suspected involvement in the murder of Cindy Morrow two days ago
behind the club 'Gattor' in town."

Gaz turned off the radio before Curtis, or, 'DJ Your Truly,
continued the story. My mouth open in a wide grin as I stared at
Wraith and Gaz, who smiled back at me. I had so many questions
tumbling around in my head that I didn't know exactly which one
to start with.

"Foxbridge has its own radio station?" I decided to start with
the obvious one first.

"Well duhh." Wraith rolled his eyes.

"And Curtis, I mean, DJ Yours Truly, hosts it?"

"Clearly." Gaz nodded.

"When did you guys tell him about all this stuff?" I demanded.

"When you were out fighting crime with Shrinker, Curtis explained
how he had heard about the commotion we cause with our parade
through Foxbridge last night and asked a bunch of question. We
told him what had happened, and he said that he had to
tell the story. That's why he wasn't there when you got back, he
had rushed off to his radio station to plan out the music and
write a script."

"A story..." I began, "About us... Was just on the
radio?" I almost screamed.

"No shit." Gaz smiled.

"Curtis is a radio presenter and he didn't tell me?"

"Why would he?"

"Because he-... He's... Our story was on the radio!" I
shouted again.

"We know!" Wraith shouted equally loud, "We just heard it!"

"Why didn't we listen to it before?" I demanded.

"Why would we?" Wraith answered with a question.

"Because I haven't heard a radio since I was, like, three years
old!"

"That was Curtis."

"What?"

"There only really is one radio station, and that's Curtis' Free
Air radio. It used to play all over the Wasteland, but something
happened with his radio tower and now it can't reach farther than
Foxbridge."

"Can we go to it?" I asked, "I used to love listening to
the radio!"

"I suppose so..."

"Yes!" I screamed, leaping out of bed and hurrying to pull on my
boots, suddenly bursting with energy.

"But you have to eat first." Gaz warned.

"Aww... Okay." I pouted, a little disappointed that we weren't
going straight away.